One publisher’s game list for one trade show shouldn’t be a big deal, but as a fan of several dormant Sega series, I’m making it a big deal. Xbox360Rally has a list of games Sega will supposedly announce and display at Tokyo Game Show.
Stuff we’ll be happy to see again: Space Channel 5, Jet Set Radio, House Of The Dead, and Sega Rally.
Stuff you never expected to see again: Shenmue I, II, and III, Fighter’s Megamix, Virtual Fighter Kids, and Chu Chu Rocket!

Full list after the jump [Read the rest of this entry…]

Master Chief is, as ever, mankind’s last hope. But with the Sangheili race no longer part of the Covenant, the Elites have a stake in the battle too. So with this back story in mind, Bungie Studios announced today that 4 players will be ale to finish the fight on September 25th.
Player One will control the Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan 117, the protagonist from the first 2 Halo games. Player 2 will play as The Arbiter, the Covenant Elite disgraced after his unit’s defeat on Halo and then joined he battle with the Sgt Johnson in Halo 2. Players 3 and 4 will be new characters N’tho ‘Sraom and Usze ‘Taham, two new Sangheili fighters. Bungie promises they will control the same and none of the 4 will offer an ability over the others, though start weapons will vary in story missions.

Read more at Bungie: The Tru7h About Co-Op in Halo 3

Thanks to Sparkstalker for the heads up.

Anyone with an Xbox Live account can find the Blue Dragon demo in Live Marketplace right now. There are 2 available levels, a dungeon and a forest. Both appear to be well into the game: you begin with 5 party members, lots of magic at your disposal, and in the middle of a quest.

Its nearly impossible to judge how good an RPG will be based on a demo because the things that make games like this enjoyable are the story, characters, and the scope of the adventure, none of which you can get a feel for in 2 hours of play. That said, the 2 hours is fun. Battles all take place with not yourself attacking monsters, but your shadow. If your party takes a beating, it raises a tension meter that when filled you can unleash a powerful summon attack. You can also charge your magic and physical attacks for more power (DBZ style!). I’m sure a lot of the nuances of battle were lost on me not having played the 50 levels before the one I was given, but I can see myself having a good time with this.

The battles are not random either, you see an enemy on screen and you can run from it or attack it to initial an encounter. you can also choose to take on large groups at once, which can give you a power up advantage as the battles progress, as well as more experience for inevitable level grinding.

This is a title thats been out in Japan for some time, but will come to the states August 28th. As many have mentioned its the first project since Chrono Trigger on the SNES that Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu, and Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama have worked together on. I count Chrono Trigger as one of my favorite games, and if Blue Dragon can give me something half as good, I’ll have a worthy addition to the Xbox 360 Library

Event just started with a performance from Corpreal, the band of high school students who played the Halo theme to some success on youtube in the past year. They played in Peter Moore, who spoke briefly about the change of venue and then announced that every game they’d show in the conference tonight will be released this year.

Then Moore introduced some of the Harmonix crew to play Rock Band. After some stumbles and Peter’s off key adlib vocals while playing guitar, they wheeled out the evenings next big gun… Viva Pinata Party Animals.

Viva Pinata Party Animals will be a party game not unlike Mario Party with… Viva Pintata characters. Yeah, I’ll leave this one to aDam.

The Mass Effect trailer. [Read the rest of this entry…]

Earlier this week, Ubisoft dropped some new maps on to Xbox Live community for Rainbox Six: Vegas in the form of the Player’s Pack: Black Edition , costing 800 points, not unlike the Red Edition they released back in April. Only one problem: This was supposed to be free.

Rainbow Six Vegas just came out on PS3 with all of the Red & Black content included, so fans obviously cried foul, and rightly so. Ubisoft pulled the download shortly after went up and apologized for the mistake. Its now available for all Xbox Live users completely for free, and the Red Pack will be converted to a free download on July 6. Those who made the ten dollar plunge into Black Edition will be refunded their points… in 8-10 weeks. Oh well, I guess it can’t all be perfect.

I personally just picked up this game a few weeks ago, and if you’re itching for more Gears Of War, R6V is a worthy successor. Intense difficulty, great use of cover for fire fights, and enough sneaky stuff to have fun with, but not so much as to ruin the experience for a run & gun player like myself. I guess I’ll have a lot to dig into with the game this week when I go online.

My review of the new Xbox Live Arcade sequel to Pac-Man

Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal dropped a bomb this week, that the next gen sequel to Katamari Damacy would be exclusive to Xbox 360. Gamespot ups the ante a bit more, announcing that it will hit Xbox Live Arcade. Namco announced nothing.

One look at the above video, and a download title makes sense. Katamari was never a graphically intensive game, since so much stuff had to be on screen at once, detail remainded low. A Xbox 360, PS3, or even Wii release would be more detailed. The first footage clearly looks no better than the PS2 is capable of, meaning the game is likely limited by size for a download. There will be 4 Player online multiplayer and new levels, which all anyone wanted anyway.

And to think only 6 short months ago, Xbox Live’s Ross Erickson called the rumor of Katamari on XBLA “total crap“

One of the best reasons to buy Microsoft Points on Xbox Live Arcade is now heading toward’s Nintendo’s twin screen portable and waggle powered console.

I speak of course of Geometry Wars. Sierra Entertainment has licensed the frantic shooter from Bizarre Creations and will be adding a full single player campaign, co-op multiplayer, and connectivity between the DS and Wii. Titled “Geometry Wars Galaxies” it will be available as a stand alone release instead of a download title. The Geometry Wars Retro Evolved will be included in the package as well.

The original game is a pick-up-and-play masterpiece. Powet’s own Screwface Capone sang GW’s praises in his weekly column. Adding to the complexity of the game could destroy it, or it could make it better than I ever imagined. This is one port I’ll really have to play to appreciate. At the very lease, the asthetic hasn’t changed, the above screen shot from the Wii version looks pretty much identical to the XBLA one.

Thankfully, one feature will be retained from the XBLA classic: Online leaderboards! Nothing drove me to get better at this game more than knowing a friend had only a couple thousand points more than me. No other Wii game has been announced with this feature so hopefully it’ll spark developers to add it in for appropriate games.

Full press release follows
[Read the rest of this entry…]